Here is the thing. Please advice.

My OPT expires on June end. Recently I got in touch with one Indian consulting firm who is willing to sponsor me H1B visa. The chance of rejection as per my consultant is 0%. They will place me in one of the financial or otherwise company (the names were rather fancy haha); the location could be anywhere in the country. They will take 20% cut from my pay for a year and after that I am free to explore my option or stay with them. Regardless they will not take 20% from my cut.

Since I have some experience in the financial sector, I do not have to take any training courses. The catch however, is; I have to pay $3900 to process my H1b, payable upfront.
$2200 for INS.
$1500 for Attroney
And $200 for some processing of some sort.

This $3900 will be paid back to me once I get placed and they will not charge 20% commission until my amount is reimbursed. The chances of placement are very good as well ( Otherwise how will they get their commission re. )

Aba yesto bhancha. I would greatly appreciate if any of you who have gone thru this process can help me out to make a decision.

Thanks.

Bme2005,
How much did they pay for premium processing? Were they for business related majors? I have only seen many IT related people suceeding in going thru these indians. They say it is just 20% comminsion for a yr. That too they will not charge until I recover my $3900. But bholebabaji says, it could be as much as 60% of my pay that they might take. Business related ma garko koi tha nabhayera alik k garne k jastai cha.

Meghna, they are in NJ and no you need not be in the same state when you are applying ( it aseems so), but they can place you anywhere in states, depending on which client company you might be hired in.
Call this no. 732-429-2314 for Raj. You can e-mail him at raj [raj@optimaresources.com]. Bme2005, could give us the contact info of the agency where your friend applied with. What field are they in?

More info please.

Wiz, finding a job was not a problem, I have gone thru interviews, multiple at times, and later after all said and done, when they were explains my pays, benefits backgroud check etc. They were pretty good companies. Then I tell them, about sponsership. Bang. It's over.
As it turns out business field is unlike others such as where they experiment on hairs, plants, chimpangee,pee, soil,monkey, donkey or teach Nepali or anything. I know, i am being sarcastic here. Well it is just frustuation setting in at times. :o).

Meghna, if you happen to call him, ask him about the pay thingie and insurance. He spoke like a flash when he was explaining that to me. And please let me know about it. A little sketchy? Maybe.

I also inquired to him about H1 transfer, which according to him was rather easy. But hang in there and you would get one. By the way go for accounting both of you. I went for the same.

Like wiz kid said, Monster and Hotjobs are good. I got it via hotjobs. It works. It did for me. OptimaR appeared like a tech resourcing company to me though.

Indis bro,

I think then i will have to consider myself as lucky, they knew everything before hiring me and i told them that they do not need to sponser me but once you are with the company for 5-6 months, you will know everything about that and also they dont want to fire you since you donot have work authorization, what you can do is talk with HR and about the sponcering you. Since i work as an accountant, i know whats going on so it makes my job easier. First you need to go inside and once you are inside the house, it will be lot more easier and also you have experiance also.

Best of luck

Wiz bro,
I was working in this bank, and then I posted my resume on hotjobs. This company contacted me, and everything fell in to place. I am more or less satisfied, but it would not hurt if they can place us in some finer companies. Perhaps expecting too much. Oh... well. That guy though was rather hurried when explaining to me about the percentage factor about the paycheck. Just be warned. Doesn't hurt.

I totally agree with you that first priority is "getting in". Then it is primarily a matter of your own hard work and your luck.

Please check job posting I just posted. This is Accounting and Finance.

Audacious, thanks for the info, I'll try to call him this week. Well i'll eventually do my masters whether i get my H1 or not. But it would be easier if i had a job, so that i can only take one or two classes rather than taking full credits to be in status. And if the company pays half of my tution it will be "sone pe suhaga". Yeah right, dream on....

I know wiz-kid, Accounting is prolly one of the hot job in market now, but i totally agree with what Indisguise said. I had got several calls from employers but once i mentioned them about sponsoring thing, i never heard back from them. Infact the place I'm working right now is great, they love my work, they also wanted to hire me, but since its a non-profit organization, they had to go through so much hassle and the company decided they wont do H1 or permanent residency. Oh well story of my life. I still have one month to go, let see if i find something... :o(

You said that your OPT was expiring in June, however, the H1 you get will not be valid until October. I talked to a layer about this and apparantely you will still be reqd to leave the country 2 months after your OPT expires however you can come back after october with your H1 Visa.
This was the reason I saw no use in getting a H1 right now. Even if a company sponsors you and your opt expiring in june, you will basically have to say to the company that you will be reqd to leave the country after august and that if you work until then it will have to be volounteer work.

Have fun!!

Mine also expires on June but i talked with my lawer and he told me that if i am out of status, then only i have to go out of the country to get the H1 visa otherwise there sould be no problem. What i am doing is, after the June, you will get 60 days period and and i am planning to join the University in between just to be in safe side. So once your H1B is approved, you dont have to leave the country to get it.

Meghna, I heard from my lawer that if you are working in non profit organization, they have seperate quotas for H1B and you dont have to wait to file. They donot have to sponcer you for H1B visa,(tell them that you can do by your own but you need these documents) just talked with them( as you were saying that they like your work), you just need couple of information about the company that you work with. Their FEIN number and you dont have to show the profit as well since your company is not for profit plus you have the letter from that Organization that you work for them as well as you can provide the paystub. You can tell them that you will file your own. it will cost you about $2000- $2500.

And in the meantime you can join the college as well so you will be in safe side if that doesnt work out.


All the best

Wiz-kid, Thanks for the info. I didn't know there is a separate H-1 B quota for Non-profit organization. Well the problem with big companies are, its not my manager who is going to file my H-1 B, there are whole sets of HR people, some lawyers and deputy council that handles all the legal matters, and they look at the matter meticulously and try to be away from troubles. So no matter how much my manager wants to hire me, its not in his hand.
Talking abt joining university, have you already done that? I was also planning to do the same thing. But i haven't done it yet, Am i too late for it now? I was thinking of joining some community college for the sake of being in status. And if i don't get H-1 i can join masters program in Sping semester.

I agree that get your H1B first then start looking for one with better company.
but you will need the pay check to transfer H1B so if you are not in a project you have to wait.
Last year the quota was consumed the first day it started. They later added 20K for people with advanced US degree.

Yeah i have already join the college but my class will be start from September. You are not late, you will get 60 days provision period to be in status.

I am 100% positive that there is a seperate H1B quatos for Non-profit organization. You may want to talk with your manager about this, just tell him that they dont have to do anything beside providing me some information about the company. This is a chance, you should grab it once you are in H1B, the good thing about having H1B + experiance= Extra $$$ and we dont have to be full time F1.

All the BEST

r u looking for a job in Marketing, finance or accounting ?
Then quick questions for you guys..
1) r u fluent in English ?
2) can you demonstrate that you are able perform better than Americans ?
3) do you have green card, citizenship or H1B ?

If not.... welcome to Information technology

how to find a good consultant who can sponsor H1b
1) go to - www.sulekha.com
2) make a quick search using H1B or OPT keyword
3) you will see tons of information on consultant willing to sponsor H1
4) email or contact them

what if you are selected ?
You will not get a job as soon as you join them. It will take you at least 3 to 5 month to get a job. It is because they have to give some training on software for at least 1/2 months. More over you will need time to gain confidence on that software. If you don't have any computer (software) background then they will try to hook up with QA (Winrunner, Loadrunner or manual testing). If you can learn fast, and have some database knowledge then the best option would be data warehousing.
They will check your confidence level. If you are confidence to give phone interview with vendors then they will float your resume in the market.

do they make any changes in my base resume ?
yes. You are no longer a fresh graduate from the college or university. you will be representing as a professional IT consultant with 5/6 years of work experience.

and what about H1B Visa?
don't worry, you are in good hands !

(decide what you want... time is running late)

USOFA, you have portrayed the exact scenario. i have just been through the shit. exactly the same. i learnt all those bull shit softwares winrunner, loadrunner, QTP .. everything.
You seemed to really knowledgable in this area. I have a question for you. I joined a consultant about six weeks back. I stayed with them for this period of time. They changed my resume so outrageously that you won't believe it until you see the resume. I had six years of experience and was working in US for past 5 years in companies whose name I can not even pronounce. I could not bear it anymore and decided to go back to continue for my PhD. When I went to tell them this thing, they got really serious and tried to convince me to stay. But, i did not wanna stay. Then, they threated me that they will charge me 5000 for the training. They told me they would send me a bill of $5000 and if I didn't pay it, it would be in my credit history. They are doing all this illegal business of changing the resume and using false references. Do you think they will really send me the bill and I will have to pay it or they are just threating me? I am broke. If I really have to pay that sum, I will be in a deep shit.

Please help me out.

Thank you.

LemmetellU dude,
Fuk that shit. They can do no shit. It is true that it seems ( I have few frens who went thru this, but have not talked or have no first hand experience; just talked with the guy whose no. was posted here couple of days back) that their is a contract and you are bound by them for a yr or two. But here is the CATCH.

As far as my business law classes taught me in US. It states somewhere in contracts/agreements/amendment that no parties can enter in to the contract IF it is illegal, (I presume not just on paper but by default as well); does not upheld the law of the nation, in essence business practices; that contract in itself is by default VOID. And we all know VOID contacts are not enforceable. You pay $40 bucks to a govt. lawyer and he can finish this case easy.

They never told you they are gonna manipulate your resume. Right? They never told you they are going to CHEAT their consultant/client company by looting them by sending novice workers and basically earning by like robbing-a-bank and most of all they did it without your consent and the client company. Who knows they might have filed their own "creative" experience letters to INS while filing for H1b.

Keep your resume as a proof and all the documents wiht you. Remember they have hundreds of thousands of dollars to loose; those jackasses. Tell them, your american friend/uncle told ya to leave this shit and just get on with ur PHD.Be clear and precies.

I am certain they can not do rats ass. They have a lot to loose themselves.

La ta, hope this would at least give you some moral support.I could get some info if i get in touch with a person i know. Anyways, you have NADA to worry.

Indisguise:)

auda..,

my 2 cents.
all indian consulting firms are not the same so it would be difficult.
i have had to deal with 3(three) of them between 2000 to 2001. all of them real bad experience. i feel lucky that i was cautious and still maintained original job. went to start working for them [while I took 3 weeks vacation from my original company and never resigned].

but i have seen a lot of other people had done well with them. So, i believe it all depends on time, your own luck and situation.

Heres some info that might help some of you here.
My OPT expires on Oct. I am going to start my paperwork for H1 next week from my company. Just to be on the safe side, I am also planning to enroll for Spring 06 sems. I talked with International student advisors and got some infos about it. I have to get admitted in the new program "before the the grace period of 60 days". I cannot apply for adm within these 60 days but it has to be in OPT period itself. Once I get admitted, it can be anytime within 60 days grace period that I can transfer from my current school/program to newly admitted program. When I get a new I20(within grace period), I can be in lawful student status for a total of 5 months(can be in the country) including those grace period(in my case, oct05-nov,nov-dec,dec-jan,jan-feb,feb-mar06). The bottom line is the program should start no late than 5 months from OPT expiration...this is what i understand so far, let me know where i am wrong. It will be helpful to me...

lemmetelu
Sorry to hear that !
Don't worry about $5000. They can't/won't do any thing to you. That is just to make you join again.

you can join the university again,provided you obtain a new I-20 for the next program of studies within 60 days after your OPT expiration date.

Bullish,
You have a rather complicated situation. I would suggest you better contact somebody who knows better in this area. Or, you can go to this site which contains very useful information about H1B processsing.
http://www.murthy.com/ ( I don't know how to make it a hyperlink)

usofa,
Thank you very much for your support. Let me explain my scenario little bit better. Then may be you can help me with your knowledge of business law. They are not charging me for breaching the contract. They are charging me the tuition for the training. I have signed a document about it. But, at the time of signing the document, I asked for a copy but said they will give it us once we get the project. It was a three-four page document and I think what's written in it was if i get a project through them, then the placement company, which is a sister company of theirs, will pay the fee for me. Otherwise, I have to pay.

So, what do you think? Will they really proceed or they will let it go?